Jim Davis

This Jim Davis (born James Robert Davis), by and far the most famous Jim Davis to date, was born on July 28, 1945, in Marion, Indiana. Although this was the same town that gave rise to James Dean, Davis' upbringing on the family farm with his brother, parents, and--yes--25 stray cats lent him less readily to maturing into a rebel without a cause. Davis likely would have followed in his father's farming footsteps were it not for severe asthma that left him unable to not only work outside for hours on end, but even to do simple chores. As such, young Jim turned to drawing pictures, and eventually to captioning them. His asthma soon diminished, but his avocation didn't, and the tall, well-built Davis continued to cartoon as he became a lettered football player at Fairmount High School, which he graduated from in 1962.

At the time, there was many a strip featuring a dog, but virtually none starring cats. Davis took the opportunity and created the now famous-and-infamous orange tabby, Garfield. Like many othercartoonists, Jim drew very heavily from his background to create his most famous work: a young man leaves his rural childhood (with a brother and a mother that look suspiciously like Davis' relatives) behind to work as a cartoonist, accompanied by a cat with the same name as Davis' grandfather. Davis' life must not have appeared too humorous at first, for the Chicago Sun-Times cancelled the strip a few months after its June 19, 1978 debut. Though 40 other newspapers were carrying it at the time, the decision made its readers so angry that thousands sent in letters calling for reinstatement. The Sun-Times relented, and Garfield started its upward climb towards eventually becoming, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, 'the most widely syndicated comic strip in the world'.

Davis's life differed from his art in two large aspects, though. Unlike Jon Arbuckle's relentless bachelorhood, Jim became married to Carolyn, who was allergic to cats (the second difference--they did own a dog, however, named Molly). The two split for unknown reasons, and on July 16, 2000, Davis married Jill, whom he lives with in Muncie, Indiana to this day. They have three children: James, Ashley, and Christopher. In his spare time, Davis enjoys golf, chess, and protecting the environment; he was awarded the Arbor Day Foundation's Good Steward Award in 1990 for his efforts in reforesting the state of Indiana.

Yet the tall, rangy figure would have fallen into the sands of ignorance were it not for a new and upcoming show that premiered in 1978: "Dallas". Jim Davis played the role of John 'Jock' Ewing, Sr, the father of the infamous 'J.R.', for the show's first several seasons. Sadly, he died on April 26, 1981 after surgery to treat a malignant form of brain cancer. He was survived by his wife, Blanche, who he had married in 1945: his only daughter, Tara Diane, had been killed in a car accident some 10 years earlier. His unexpected death caused a dilemma for the script writers, who were unable to dispose of him until halfway through the next season; they ended up writing him to have been drilling oil in South America for the preceding episodes, and having died in a plane crash later.

Jim Davis--The Journalist

This Jim Davis--well, actually, there's more than one of these. A Jim Davis is a frequent staff writer for the Fresno Bee, a featured columnist for Illinois' Naperville Daily Herald, and possibly a contributor for the Associated Press as well. We can assume these are not the same person. As far as can be known, neither Jim Davis nor Jim Davis nor Jim Davis has held an interview with Jim Davis, discussed Jim Davis' activities in Washington, D.C., or written Jim Davis' obituary. If any of this proves to be false, please let me know.